Tenure-Track Investigator, NIH Distinguished Scholar
Chief, Single Virion Biology and Biophysics Unit
Education:
Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2015, Harvard University
Ph.D., Virology, 2008, Harvard University
B.S., Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, 1999, University of California, Los Angeles
Biography
Dr. Ivanovic was born in Serbia (former Yugoslavia), where she attended the Mathematics Gymnasium and where talented teachers inspired in her a love for biology as well as interest in the mathematical sciences and computing. She earned a Bachelor of Science in microbiology and molecular genetics from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1999, earned a Ph.D. in virology from Harvard University in 2008, and did postdoctoral work with Steve Harrison (Harvard University), funded in part by a L’Oreal Fellowship for Women in Science, developing single-particle methods based in TIRF microscopy for studying virus membrane fusion. As an assistant professor at Brandeis University, she led an independent research program focused on viral assembly, virus-host interaction, and viral adaptation. While at Brandeis, her research was supported by an NIH Director’s New Innovator Award and by The G. Harold and Leila Y. Mathers Charitable Foundation. Her lab relocated to LVD in May 2023. Dr. Ivanovic believes that deep mechanistic understanding of virus function that can come from advanced techniques is at the cusp of delivering breakthroughs in our understanding of how to combat viruses that are a major threat to the human population.